Chicago Booth Alumni Gift Funds Marketing Professorship and More
In recognition of the many ways that Chicago Booth has impacted his career, Jim Kilts (Booth MBA ’74) recently make a $4.25 million donation to create the Kilts Family Professorship and the Kilts Faculty Research Prize for Excellence in Marketing. His gift will also go toward providing additional support for the James M. Kilts Center for Marketing. This is just a small piece of the more than $12.5 million that the Chicago Booth alumni has donated to the school’s marketing efforts over the last 20 years.
Through his gifts, Kilts hopes that Chicago Booth will remain on the cutting edge of marketing education. He already believes it’s the best marketing school in the world, and he credits the exceptional faculty, data resources, and multi-disciplined approach with making that possible. Another piece of that success is the Kilts Center, which has a long-standing relationship with Nielsen; this allows them to distribute data sets to more than 1,000 researchers from 130 academic institutions.
According to Jean-Pierre Dubé, Sigmund E. Edelstone Professor of Marketing and Director, Kilts Center for Marketing, “Jim Kilts’ gift to create a new professorship and a new faculty research prize will play an instrumental role in supporting and recognizing ground-breaking research in marketing, while helping us to attract and retain the world’s top marketing scholars.”
About Jim Kilts
Jim Kilts started his career at General Foods when he was just a teenager. By college, he was a lab technician, and that paved the way for his future career. After earning his MBA at Chicago Booth in 1974, Kilts went on to become CEO of three iconic consumer goods companies: Kraft, Nabisco, and Gillette. Later, he founded a financial advisory and private equity firm, and he credits Chicago Booth with much of his success.
“It’s always been a great school and I owe my prosperity to the University of Chicago, the institution which changed my life,” Kilts says. “I hope my latest gift provides the added support to help make Booth the best marketing school in the world.”
Read more about the gift and the Chicago Booth alumni on the Chicago Booth news site.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from its original source, Clear Admit.
$5 Million Given to Rowan’s Rohrer College of Business
On Wednesday, September 13, Rowan University President Dr. Ali Houshmand revealed that The William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation gifted $5 million to Rohrer College of Business.
Linda M. Rohrer, trustee of the William G. Rohrer Charitable Foundation and daughter of William Rohrer, felt this gift appropriately honored her father’s values. “My father had a passion for education and for helping fellow businesspeople succeed,” Rohrer said. “As we work to continue his legacy, this gift will ensure that the Rohrer College of Business remains competitive and can educate even more talented business students.”
Rohrer has already undergone considerable development recently, with the completion of Rowan University Business Hall in January, 2017 after three years of construction. For almost a year now, the 98,000-square foot, four-story building has served as home to the college of business. Moreover, 14 new faculty members have joined Rohrer in just the last few years.
This significant addition to the school, as well as the $5,000,000 will allow the university to provide resources that will draw in new talent. Including the newest contribution, the William G. Rohrer Foundation has committed $19,000,000 to Rowen in the past 25 years.
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This gift is going to be channeled toward specialized scholarships and enterprises to improve recruitment and retention rates, efforts that should help the school increase its impact in the community.
According to Houshmand, “One of our primary responsibilities as a public research university is to help drive the economy of the region by developing a talented stream of future business leaders. This generous gift will help us stem the tide of students going out of state for business educations, many of whom do not return.”
Houshmand’s sentiment echoed that of Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney after Business Hall was Built. Sweeney said, “We want to grow the economy here. Rowan is the linchpin in economic development in South Jersey.”
TCU Neeley Alumni Pledge $5.5 Million for School’s Expansion
Two TCU Neeley alumni have just generously donated a significant leadership gift from alumni Tom and Marilyn Sumner to support the school’s expansion.
